“Well, if she’s really thinking about selling out, send me the financials and her business plan and let me look it over. We’ll make sure she’s got the best damn proposal she could possibly have before she walks in the door. FCN is here in Manhattan. I know one of their acquisition execs, Carly Christianson. She’s a real ballbuster.”
“Great, something to look forward to,” he said sarcastically. “We’re putting the proposal together, so we’ll send you everything by the end of the week.”
“These types of negotiations can be a bear. Make sure Lizzie’s mentally prepared for it. Networks are known for trying to swoop into the little guys’ houses and take advantage quicker than they can say thank you.”
Blue glanced at Lizzie, who was standing by the window nibbling on her lower lip. He knew that when push came to shove, that tenuous persona would go out the window. “My girl can handle anything.” He blew Lizzie a kiss, and she grabbed the air like she caught it and pressed her hand to her cheek. That small act of love warmed him all over.
“I’ll do some research, pick a few industry brains, and look into comparable transactions and metrics.” Duke was speaking fast. Clearly he’d gone into investor mode. “They’ll look at precedent transactions and cash-flow analysis, although I can’t imagine there’s much analysis to do in that regard unless she’s using proxies and doing a boatload of marketing. Online investors usually gravitate toward earnings multiples for business valuation because of its simplicity in the face of scarce comparable data, but I’ll dig into all of that. You get me her financials for the last three years, projections for the next two, and stats: views, length of time spent on site, et cetera, and I’ll handle the rest.”
“Thanks, man. We’ll get it all together.” As he listened to his brother clicking away on his computer keyboard, he imagined Duke watching Lizzie in her apron and heels, purring into the camera, and jealousy scraped up his spine.
One look at Lizzie, and he slayed that green-eyed monster before it had a chance to do any damage. He ended the call with Duke and folded her into his arms.
“Well?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Get ready for the ride of your life, sweetheart. The Ryder boys have got your back.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
OVER THE NEXT week and a half Lizzie and Blue fell into a routine as naturally as they’d come together on their first date. Blue spent the days working at his cottage on the bluff, sending Lizzie sweet texts to let her know he was thinking of her while she was working at the flower shop. Sometimes he stopped by midafternoon to bring her lunch and see how she was doing. She knew he worried about her being upset over her father not speaking to her, and his love was comforting and a reminder that when you love someone, any hurdle could be overcome. If only her father would learn to jump.
The Food Channel Network had contacted her again and scheduled a meeting in New York for Friday. She was excited beyond belief and more nervous than she ever thought possible.
She and Blue had worked tirelessly through the evenings, combing through ledgers, collecting graphs and figures, preparing the strongest proposal they could for the network, and sent the information to Duke. Lizzie fought the urge to call and thank her father for pushing her to earn her degree, which she realized had helped her tremendously over the years. Thanking a man who wouldn’t speak to her would be not only difficult, but heartbreaking.
Blue still wasn’t quite ready to watch her film an episode. She could tell that he was still fighting jealousy, but she also knew how hard he was trying to push past it and support her. She was actually relieved that he didn’t want to watch her film, because the idea of Blue watching her made her nervous. She worried she’d either fall into full seduce-Blue mode or look like she was trying too hard and totally flub up the episode.
Even though he wasn’t comfortable watching, tonight he wanted to help her edit the show she’d taped the night before to get a better understanding of her process. Baby steps.
They sat before the laptop, waiting for the video to queue up. It was one thing to talk about the videos or for Blue to watch them without her in the room, but even though her heart told her that their relationship was strong enough to handle it, she worried that watching a Naked Baker video together could reignite Blue’s discomfort.
Lizzie looked up from the laptop where they were working and stole a glance at the man who had relentlessly pursued her, challenged her, and had, remarkably, remained by her side. She’d never met a man like Blue before, blatantly honest about everything, even his insecurities. She didn’t know a single man who would readily admit that jealousy stood between him and what he wanted, or that his need to protect her, and her reputation, was causing him conflict. She’d always considered herself an honest person, but she was quickly learning that her idea of honesty wasn’t nearly as clearly defined as his. He’d shown her more about unconditional love than her own father had, and it made her love him even more.